Zodiak's Lair

Friday, June 04, 2010

Well, howdy again. I know I don't update as much but I seem to keep on coming back here and talking about games and shooting at the hip about the industry of games. That's all well and dandy but since I've grown in the field of voice acting by a lot, I am going to merge them together. In fact, I will also be putting up stuff that I have done with my card games as well. Think of it as a developmental blog/ranting page. I really hate to see posts from the beginning of the year and the newest one in June of 2008.

The name of the blog will be changed to reflect these aspects. I don't have a name as of yet but be sure it will be something simple. As an added bonus I'll put up the link on my VAA profile page along with many other links that will keep me in check as a VA and designer.

Monday, April 12, 2010

Hey all, I know this seems like a spontaneous review and blog post for that matter but I'm in the mood to review the latest DLC for Mass Effect 2, Kasumi: Stolen Memory.

-----And yes this is spoilers into the 540 MS points DLC, you have been forewarned----

Upon loading up the DLC, you must go to the Citadel to obtain Kasumi. Once you talk to her you will obtain her on the Normandy. This character will unlock the other observation deck opposite to Samara. You can go into her cabin to scope out a few things, including a bar! Basically, her loyalty mission will be in the same space as the Citadel so you don't have to space jump to a different system.

Well basically, you go with Kasumi and that's it. And, on top of that, you are infiltrating a big business tycoon's estate. No weapons except your pistol. Now, you give this guy a golden statue of Saren as a token of...well just as a token of gratitude. Plus your name is Gunn lol much like a Jame Bond name. Your primary objective is to unlock the vault door to Donovan's personal collection. After a few enemies and some walking around, you unlock the door and go down to the vault.

Inside is the most amazing area of the game. Inside are a bunch of statues that he has collected including the head of the Statue of Liberty after terrorists had blown the statue up. Also included is a new sub-machine gun with little recoil. So basically you run out of the vault and face Donovan in his gun ship. His shields rapidly regenerate so it's impossible to damage his ship. You will need to mow down several waves of guards to get to the point where Kasumi jumps on top of the ship and destroys the shields thus making you able to shoot down the Donovan. Afterward, your drop ship will appear and fly up back into the Normandy.

Overall, you will receive the following on the DLC:1. Kasumi2. Alternate Attire for Kasumi3. New casual outfit4. Sub-machine gun5. Unlock the final part of the Normandy6. The BAR!7. Statue of Liberty's head (it's awesome looking lol)

In the end, it's pretty well worth the points to buy plus it is one of the most memorable missions out of all the Mass Effect quests. This is on par with Bring Down the Sky from Mass Effect 1. So save your points and download this DLC from the Cerberus Network.

Saturday, January 02, 2010

After getting fired for bullshit reasons, I decided to check out this forum for any roles for voice acting for a video or even audio play. Since I am an avid fan of theater and the arts, I auditioned for a role here and there and gotten selected for the role. So far I've been casted in a few roles not too much because there isn't that much original productions. All the site has is fandubs which is not me because someone else is already voicing that character. It's like if I was cast as Homer Simpson, I do the voice great....but there is someone else who does the voice. Besides, I like to bring life into this new character, give him direction and meaning in that universe.

So whenever I get a chance I update the site with my roles and hopefully I can get a demo reel up once I have a selection of voices to choose from. I like anime voice acting, I like video game voice acting, it looks like a fun job and you get to meet a lot of screaming fans. So hopefully this will become a career one day. As far as video games go, I am still writing a basic skeleton for my story I hope gets to be made one day. That combined with voice acting, it should provide me with a lot of work in the future. Ugh, if only I could get steady work now. But now that I'm off I can focus on the things that make me happy and enjoy life now. Even for a short while but some times after putting in years of work, you need that month or 2 off to stop and reflect with friend and family.

So I am cast as a pirate in Hook, A Halo 3 Machinima and I love everything about the role except that they modulate my voice to sound a bit slower. Well he is a dumb uneducated pirate lol. Was glad to audition and have no regrets. Check it the 1st episode here and follow through. We have 2 more episodes and a Thanksgiving special that wasn't so good. So far we average around 10,000 views on youtube, hopefully we can get another 10,000.

New Years has past and I want to wish all a very happy new year, just wondering to say two thousand and ten or twenty ten....I like twenty ten more, sounds better, sounds epic.

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Brutal-ly Honest: A quick review of Brutal Legend demo for the X-box 360.

Tim Schafer began his gaming industry fame at the start of the late 80’s with the video game, Maniac Mansion. In the 90’s he had successfully worked on a sequel to Manic Mansion and worked on the Monkey Island series. In 2005, Schafer, as creative director, developed Psychonauts a tale of a gifted boy who develops his psychic powers and runs away to join a summer camp to become a Psychonaut. Tim Schafer resurfaces again in 2009 with a game called Brutal Legend, a rock and roll action-adventure game which takes funny man, musician, and actor Jack Black’s voice and throws it into this twisted world.

I took the advice of this game from a friend of mine and promised him that I would take a look into this game. I’m not a real fan of demos since it usually just displays one level of walking and shooting and then some advertisements for the game and you’re done with the demo. This is not the case for Brutal Legend. The demo gives the player a generous amount of gameplay along with some amazing comedic parts done by the protagonist Eddie Riggs as he walks in the depths of “hell”.

Upon loading the game, we are treated to a weird start menu of a guy unveiling the Brutal Legend record on a table. For me, this is the greatest start menu ever. It’s so common that games today have the typical serious start menu with bland, emotional colors, but Brutal Legend has such unique, bright menu that it makes me feel good about myself (well if black is your favorite color); makes me feel like I’m going to read, or listen, to this legendary tale of awesomeness. Most selections are blocked off due to the demo, we are given the “Start Game” and “Options” selections, blocked selections include “Credits”, “Continue”, “Multiplayer”, and “Extras”.

I started it up on normal and the mountain of skulls transitions into a massive rock stage as we are pulled into the storybook. We are treated to Black’s character Eddie Riggs, a roadie helping out a young “rock” band with their gig. He fixes and builds literally everything; he created the stage and help fix guitars. As the band plays “rock”, and I do use the term “rock” loosely, he helps save the stupid guitarist from falling off the set itself. Sadly, this leads to Eddie’s death as the stage comes alive and kills the “rock” band while the crowd eats up the super awesome special effects. However, we see that Eddie is alive and wakes up on the set now filled with bones and some monks chanting for their master. Riggs is mistaken and grabs an ancient axe and his rocking guitar and decides to kick some ass for the rock gods. On his journey, he meets a super hot rock babe who doesn’t know how to French kiss, creates the hot rod Druid Plow, and defeats a bone worm. All in all, a very enjoyable story with some amazing music to boot provided by such names as Ozzy Ozbourne, Megadeth, KMFDM, and many others including Black’s band Tenacious D.

Gameplay is on the same level as God of War for the Playstation. You press the “a” button for one attack, press the “x” button and quickly press the “a” button again to perform a three hit combo. Riggs will have a variety of weapons as well as attacks as the game progresses. The targeting and avoid system is a little odd since I am use to the right analog stick being the dodge away from an attack stick from God of War. In Legend, it is used to fix the camera movement and when locked onto an enemy, it will dodge away from attacks. This, for me, will take some time getting use to since I was spoiled by the great controls of God of War.

The graphics are cartoonish but tweaked with a surreal amount of seriousness. The color pallets aren’t dreary like a vast majority of games that are available today. Once you escape the stage and use your Earthshaker ability, you will see some bright colors pop out against the darker colors, especially when looking at the pile of skulls with the bright orange backdrop. The in-game engine animation cutscenes look very smooth and seems to work with loading times, assuming if it’s on a disc rather than on the hard drive of an X-box 360 or Playstation 3.

I had a very enjoyable time playing the Brutal Legend demo twice. This is going to be the game in which Schafer will be known for and undoubtedly will make a lot more sales than Psychonauts. Schafer has learned to hit the core audience of gamers that understand the business of true rock n roll mixed in with his comedic content is an absolute win for the industry. I am certainly awaiting the final product and a sequel to the game if it allows for a nice cliffhanger at the end. Tim, I never had so much fun with a game in a long time, thank you for providing a game with a fresh, less serious, look into the industry. Then again, Elmo’s Letter Adventure has bright colors too.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

A great series once started out in the year of 1996, a game called Resident Evil. The game won over the hearts of millions worldwide with cheesy voice acting and its bloody graphics. Although the blood was only pixels of red, Capcom had redone the game to make it spill out green blood. Tons of reedits were done to the game to further the population of the series. Resident Evil: Director's Cut busted out on the scene and helped recreate the game with many improvements and fan service. The director's cut featured a small look into Resident Evil 2, the game that would put Capcom straight on the map for survival horror.

Resident Evil 2 is still a fan favorite along with Resident Evil 3, Coder Veronica, and Resident Evil 4, the series had made its way around even spawning a spin off series out of Gun Survivor and Outbreak. Resident Evil 5 hit American shores on both the Xbox360 and Playstation 3 in early 2009. Capcom had stated that the story of Chris will end and come full circle. Granted it did, but sadly not the way fans would have liked it. Many complained that the game was so much filler and the characters didn't have enough background in the main story. However, players are forced to read about their backgrounds and learn from it. It helps out new players but the old school players would have loved a cut scene much like Wesker's Report.

So we end the era of ECW Chris and Jill's Sandwiches, but this leaves the story open for someone else to grab the spotlight of our roid infested character. Here are some basic ideas I have.

Idea #1. Leon gets control of the series and is the next main character. As much as Capcom loves Chris, the fans, mostly girls, enjoy the Leon character a lot so it would make sense. Now as far as plot goes, the only few things we have in Leon's storyline is Sherry and Ada and Claire. With Wesker's departing this puts Ada in a strange place seeing as she isn't controlled by Wesker anymore, so is she freelance now? Also with Sherry, was that plot suddenly erased from existance? As far as Claire is concerned, with the movie in mind, I don't think they will be seeing each other as much not with Leon's US Government job. That's some serious overtime there. Maybe some more occult village for Leon to go after.

Idea #2. Ada getting her own game. Maybe her grabbing more samples of the viruses Wesker left behind. Ada persuiting Leon a bit, and perhaps getting a kiss lol.

Idea #3. Please bring back Billy. Billy has a lot of storyline to be fleshed out with. I thought Billy would make a cameo in RE5 due to him being in Africa once before but sadly that didn't come to pass. We still have no idea where he is living or where he has hidden. I would hope that they do something with the character.

Idea #4. Rebecca is still out there. I dunno how much else she could get in storywise but the people seem to like her a bit, maybe stick her with a new group of commandos. You know the ones who won't die quickly. But with her passion for herbs and her experience with the Spencer Mansion, she is likely to become an agile fighter.

Idea #5. Barry Burton...oh wait I remember when they made a game with him as the main character....yeah....

Idea #6 Claire still may have some ummph in the series. Steve is apparently alive so I wonder when they will get to this? Probably never but you never know.

Idea #7. Eliza Walker. I said it, would of been a cool character but that idea was transformed into Claire. Would be nice to see her being reused and recreated again. (do it for me and the fanboys of her lol).

Idea #8. A new person....seriously, it would get new fans into the series as well as getting some supporting characters from the older games and blam, ya got a classic in the making.

Also, bringing back the infected Leon/castle storyline. I think that would work with anybody new or old.

Any if not all options are on the table for the series to move foward. As long as the gameplay and the story are good, the Resident Evil series will stay on for a while.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

It's amazing what a shop in the mall could do to you after all these years. Sorry, I'm reminiscing a bit about Bubble Tea! If you haven't heard of it, trust me try it out for yourself, it's an amazing drink. It's like a usual drink, many flavors to choose from you can have it either warm or cold. It's a milk tea using Tapioca balls to add to the value of the drink. It costs around $2 to $3 bucks and for some strange reason it makes me feel good about myself.

Now, when you grab the drink it will be wrapped with paper which you can poke your big straw through. Yeah, the most noticeable thing will be the BIG straw in which you are required to use to get the balls out of the cup. Now I dunno if you chew it or swallow the ball whole, either way it makes for a good time!

Why do I write about this? A shop in the local mall actually sells the bubble tea and it's in the corner of the mall where shoppers don't normally crowd around. I was very shocked to see such a store in the mall as the last time my encounter with the tea was on Rutgers campus in this little cubby hole shop, you could literally fit about 10 people in there. There I was introduced to the wonderful flavors of bubble tea and it's many ways to taste an amazing product from Taiwan. I believe the trend started there and was later adapted into culture in Japan and now worldwide. It may sound gross but don't knock it off.

Another reason I decided to update today is the unfortunate passing of Wacko Jacko. You know, I was turned on by his music when Weird Al covered his parodys. His hits made it across the radio on some top 40 stations here in the tri-state area and so I was immediately in tune with the songs Billie Jean, Beat It, Gunna Be Starting Something, Thriller. Ah hell, I can't I forget about Thriller. The EPIC video playing on the Box music video channel in October. I wouldn't hear much about him until his music was featured in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. It was a suprise to hear his music while blasting bad guys in Vice City. It was very fitting and very cool to hear, always sang it. Even though this man has molested children and done weird things, you got to take that out of the equasion I mean beyond all of the shit that he done, here is a man that REVOLUTIONIZED the music industry and changed the game. Dare I speak of his own video game, Moonwalker, that I played in arcades.

Sadly, he is dead. He died a broke man and by broke I mean losing the Neverland Ranch, the support of all his fans during the trial, and his exile from the mainstream. He died much like Ed Mcmahon during his struggle to get his house back. But Jackson's legacy will be heard forever, much like the Beatles, over the radio waves.

Wednesday, June 03, 2009

Seriously, I love collector editions for my favorite games. I have a few of them and they really help stand out from the generic game box. However, I'm seeing more and more of them pop up for new games and existing franchises. Now, every damn company is doing these collections and I'm getting sick of it, especially if it's on the level of Halo 3 collectors, a helmet you can't even wear but your cat can.

A problem is the shelling out of money. This would be great to do, especially if the game costs the old school $50, but paying an extra $40 is just bad, just for stickers and a cell art frame so you can post it above your bedroom? Also, increasing game cost has made gamers into smart buyers. Retail now offers great deals on some current and old games. I bought Street Fighter 4 a few weeks ago and I love it (except for Seth......fucker) and I paid $37 for it. Sadly, I have missed good game deals over the past year. I missed out on Mirror's Edge for $37, but I did pick up Mass Effect for $40 and Bioshock for about the same price. I knew we had a collector's edition for that but why would you buy it for a new game? Sure the graphics were stunning but you would go out on a limb and purchase something you dunno if you would like? I don't think there was a demo for it on Live either. Correct me if I'm wrong.

If you're gunna do a collector's edition, make it like the World of Warcraft's boxes. I have the Burning Crusade expansion and it's massive....think I paid $90 for it but the thing comes PACKED with all kinds of shit. An in-game exclusive pet, an art book, a music CD, the game on DVD and CD-ROM, an invite to a wow website, cards from the card game, exclusive promos, and hell I dunno how much more but the box is very nice.Oh yeah forgot about the amazing mouse pad and the behind the scenes DVD. This IS a collectors edition unlike, oh lets say, Dead Space and their art book with 3-D glasses. All I know is that it probably cost around the same for the dead space game.

Dunno what else to say but they way I say is, if you think you are getting a sweet deal with all the swag you're paying for...buy the collectors but if it's some lame ass shit, just avoid it all together because it's gunna be a trap hole for your wallet.

As far as next post, I think I'll look into some card games, maybe go into some detail about how I made mine or just ideas in general. Card games are the centerpiece of my life and it's great to play them, not as much today, but having all the pokemon or all of the secret rares in yugioh, it was a blast to play and make friends with everyone at a hobby shop. I'm in random mode now, but go out there and support your local hobby store, ask for leagues, get something going becuase these stores are going the way of the arcades.

Zodiak's Lair

Would love to be in the video game industry in the near future selling ideas and making very good games. This is why I'm here. I'm currently in college and I have written 1 game and several ccg engines.